Muckers Monday Warm Up Race. 27/02/23
Rouvy Route used: Death Valley #2 | California | USA | 19.7 miles | 492.13 ft of climbing
Route 3 from the USA – Desert Destinations | EASY Challenge
37 Registered | 22 finishers | 6 dnf | 9 dns
Tuesdays race moved to Monday this week and we had 28 ready on the start line for this “Easy” route ( ROUVYS words not mine 🤨) we are using for tonight’s warm up race. I do love it when we change out from our regular days, as we always get treated to some new riders, who might not be able to get on our usual Tuesday and Thursday night races.
So, whos won this one? “hejo” got the gold, just a fifth of a second in front of fellow Netherlands rider “adampel” showing how flat drafting races are great for this kind of close finish! 3rd came the strong German rider “Simon_Hahenbruch” with countryman, and Muckers worldwide rider, “denny44” claiming a very strong 4th place with “PatrykS_Ggynia_PL” close behind in 5th and “robbiedoo” just as close behind in 6th!
“Chak” came over the line next in 7th just in front of “Xucu” in 8th, “Andy_UP” in 9th with “Mgk1971” rounding outthe top 10 with a superb time of 0:48:54.2.
The top 20 riders finished this in under an hour which is just superb for a near 20 mile ride. Well done everyone and please let us know in the comments how the race went for yourselves.
cheers
different tactic for me tonight and went off as fast as possible to jump in the draft of the leaders. I actually ended up in 2nd for a few seconds, but it was way too fast for me and wasn’t going to last long, but would the fast start make a difference to my finishing position?? I Obviously Got dropped on the long climb, but I just got onto Pavels wheel at the top and we then got joined by Kin and we tried to ride together to catch up to the guys up front. Kins pace was too much for Pavel and myself so we dropped off and worked together and I was able to recover. I started to feel good/strong again and i could see jonaths was closing the gap to us from behind so i put a little bit more effort in and pavel couldn’t come with me. So head down and keep momentum and power nice and lets see if i catch anyone!? really started to feel good and caught and passed tomleriger which doesn’t happen often at all and I suspect he had backed/let off. Kin was too far in front so I just settled for keeping the speed nice and high and came home 14th. That is pretty good for me so maybe I should start like that more often??
Nice race Neil! Too bad we weren’t able to work together at the mid race. You were strong and catching at the end. Luckily I was able to keep the distance. See you in the next race.
yeah, sorry about that. I feel sometime if I just take a moment to recover, I can then start to up the power and keep increasing it. The stamina side is fine, I just can’t seem to keep on the power from the get go and keep it. Might just have to look at my pre pre warms ups 😁
I had the same tactics as Neil, start strong, and get in the draft of a fast group. But seems like I had an off day, and had to let the fast group go. I ended up with Xucu and Shrek. Xucu didn’t feel like pulling and so I stopped pulling too, let my teammate Chak close the gap. With 3 teammates vs Xucu, we had a chance to beat this guy who rode very strangly, going from constantly 1.5w/kg to over 5w/kg and back. I tried a few times to surprise him but he kept closing the gap with w/kg to up to 10! Near the end I had to let go, and leave it to Chak to try and beat him. I saw Chak pulled very hard and Xucu closing the gap and trying to overtake him in the final meters, hitting 18w/kg! He lost with 0.1sec and I even cheered a bit on this great performance of my teammate, and my choice of tactics. I know I don’t want to go to the line with Chak if I want to beat him, and seeing Xucu pulled just under 1200watt and still didn’t make it, he now knows too. With 29 surges above 4w/kg, and 6 above 6w/kg I wonder, was this guy playing with us?
Thanks for the comments and you rode an excellent race. I love reading these comments as it does bring it home that someone else is there in another country trying to get that little avatar as far up the order as possible!
Speed was high at the beginning and I wanted to be in one of the front groups. After 8km the at the first little climb I pushed hard and was in a fast group with “robbiedoo”. “Patryk” joined us one km later. The track was flat and we kept the speed high. Wasn’t an exciting race. The first attack was by “robbiedoo” 5 km before the finish but not successful. “Patryk” started his attack 1km befor the line and it was hard to follow but I stayed in the draft and reached his wheel. Finally I passed him and the last 400m I started my attack and he couldn’t follow. Long sprint of 1km and I could feel my tired legs 🙂 Not to good for the main race, I left to much energy at the warm up.
outsprinting Patryk for 4th has to be a highlight as well.. it was a little boring in places this route, but this is where the racing really helps to take the boring bits and make them interesting while you try and race/draft? well, that’s the goal.😣😉 Well done and thanks for commenting!
I got off to a fast start too, but was dropped from the lead group. Luckily Rouvy1Bryon came up from behind and pulled me along like a locomotive, riding between 3.4 and 4.0 watts/kg. Surprisingly, on the last small climb before the finish line, his power dropped below 3.0 watts and he fell behind. Maybe he got a phone call?
Although I was only drafting, I was so exhausted that I abandoned the race at 20:10 and rode the course at recovery speed immediately afterwards.